MP heading towards becoming an industrial state: Jaitley

Indore, Oct 22 (IANS) Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said Madhya Pradesh has moved from being a BIMARU (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh) state 13 years ago to an economic industrial centre.

Talking about the landscape after the 2003 Vidhan Sabha election, Jaitley said: “The roads were in bad condition, power was erratic and travelling from Bhopal to Indore was difficult. The scenario has changed in 13 years.”

The Finance Minister was speaking at the inauguration of the Global Investors Summit here at Brilliant Convention Centre (BCC).

Talking about the linking of Narmada and Kshipra rivers, he said: “The project has increased the generation of electricity. Infrastructure has improved and educational institutions have been established.”

Announcing an investment of approximately Rs 20,000 crore in the state, Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said: “We are planning to invest aproximately 20,000 crore in MP, including two new units of Ultratech cement.”

The two-day summit was inaugurated in the presence of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Union Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Narendra Singh Tomar. More than 3,000 representatives from industrial regions are participating in this event.

On Friday, Chouhan had announced that businesses will continue to enjoy tax exemptions even after the Goods and Service Tax (GST) regime comes into effect.

He added that the state’s economy is speedily developing and there are vast opportunities for investing in the industrial space.

Baba Ramdev, also one of the representatives from the private businesses, expressed his displeasure at the government not allotting him preferred proportion of land for setting up ayurvedic products manufacturing unit and said the allotted land is like a “wrestling ground” for him.

The annual Global Investors Summit is expected to hold discussions on development of industries like textile, automobile engineering, food processing, energy, tourism, ‘Make in India’ and opportunities for export in MP.